His vehicle was equipped with geolocation tracking, but when the operation to arrest him was launched at dawn on Tuesday, January 20, the 47-year-old had lost all trace of him.
Ervin Dakoli, a 47-year-old Albanian, considered by the Bologna DDA as a powerful drug trafficker active in the trafficking of narcotics to Italy, but also to France and Spain, has managed to escape capture. He is suspected of being at the head of the criminal organization based in Reggio Emilia, which was hit on Tuesday by nine security measures issued by the Bologna investigating judge at the request of the DDA. Seven measures have been executed, but Dakoli — who was in Albania — and another fugitive based in France are still missing.
Agents of the Reggio Emilia Police Squadra Mobile, coordinated by the Central Operative Service of the Central Anti-Criminal Directorate and supported by the Third Division of the International Police Cooperation Service of the Central Criminal Police Directorate, in collaboration with the Office of the Expert for Security in Albania, had been following him for months in Albania, in the city of Kavaja. His vehicle was located with GPS, but at the moment the action for the arrest was taken, the 47-year-old had disappeared from all traces. The suspicion that someone in his hometown had warned him about the arrest warrant that was weighing on him is now more than a hypothesis.
15 people under investigation
Operation “Sturl One” has dismantled an international gang of Albanian drug traffickers: a total of 15 people are under investigation, of whom nine (eight Albanians and one Italian) are subject to arrest warrants. Arrests and searches were carried out, in addition to the Italian provinces of Reggio Emilia, Bergamo, Brescia and Savona, also in France, Spain and Albania, thanks to operational coordination with foreign police authorities, in particular with the Albanian Criminal Police Department.
The gang members, according to the investigations, used "encrypted phones" to avoid wiretapping and moved large quantities of cocaine and cash across half of Italy. At the head of the organization was precisely Dakoli, active in Emilia-Romagna, who imported large quantities of cocaine, marijuana and hashish into Italy from South America, Northern Europe and Spain, hiding them inside trucks with fruit and vegetables, to then distribute them throughout the national territory with the help of a wide network of couriers.
Encrypted platform “Skyecc”
To communicate securely among themselves, the suspects used the encrypted platform “Skyecc”, installed on specific telephone devices worth thousands of euros each. Two of these devices, seized in previous operations, gave new impetus to the investigations, leading in 2022 to the opening of a new investigative branch.
By monitoring the suspects' conversations, investigators have determined that within just six months the organization was able to transport, manage and distribute over 200 kilograms of cocaine and 1,000 kilograms of hashish and marijuana, with illicit profits exceeding one million euros.
